Painted Gourds by Robert Rivera (Bio Below)

28.25 x 23.50  image on 30 x 23.50 paper - Open Edition JCG Release - Print On Art Paper

Fine Art Reproduction on High Quality Art Paper - Mint (pristine/new) Condition - Unframed

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Robert Rivera lives with his wife of twenty years Linda, in the Sandia foothills in Placitas, New Mexico. His story involves gourds of every conceivable shape and size. The designs reflect Rivera's Spanish, Apache and French heritage with heavy emphasis on images from Native American culture.

Robert Rivera has taken a simple, organic material and transformed it into an art form that falls somewhere between painting, sculpture and pottery. Rivera has established an international reputation for himself.

Just a few years ago Rivera did not know what a gourd was. He worked as a welder in Los Alamos, New Mexico until 1978 and came upon a pile of gourds while on a trip to California. He bought a dozen gourds and brought them back to New Mexico. Rivera quit his government job to paint the gourds. He became extremely successful after a long, hard road of "not interested."

Rivera's personal favorites are the gourds painted with ancient Anasazi designs. He also began to create new designs based on Chinese, Indonesian and Greek art.

"The idea that my work is in people's houses all over the place is one of the most satisfying parts of my work," he says. "That moves me so much that they liked something I did well enough to actually buy it and have it in their house. I still can't believe I am so lucky."